A couple of years back, when 12 was 10, he and hs little grade school cronies would say 'yeek' as an all-purpose exclamation.

Mebbe, they were sayin' 'yeet' instead.

Annoyed the piss out of me.

I banned its use in earshot of me.

As an old person, I must say that I found that video interesting, informative, and entertaining.

this. I hadn't come across a few of them so I asked GradGirl who confirmed their existence and her use of them. While typing on her phone. She said yeet is OLD though.

Yeet.

Sounds like something the King of Pop would've sang about...

♪ Mom told him don't you swipe things from her hand
Don't throw things at your sister, you'd better understand
No more YouTube now for you 'cause it's gone from your purview
So yeet it, just yeet it ...♫

I wonder if all of those noises actually have meaning, the same meaning, most of the kids understand, or they're mostly conveying emotions?

"mostly conveying emotions?"
 

it's chimpanzee jibber-jabber: status noise

Could be the future baby talk.

'So'.

On the face of it a benign and timid little word, the etymological equivalent of the Harvest Mouse.

However, I am driven to distraction by those who use it at the beginning of an answer to any and every question, especially in a radio or TV interview.

'Secretary of State, would you outline the Government's policy on Japanese Knotweed'?

'So, we've put proposals out for consultation blah blah'.

Apart from politicians, business leaders, academics and all purpose pundits are guilty in large numbers.

Perhaps it isn't the word that should be taken out and despatched but those use it.

You know, pour encourager les autres.

At least IRL you can interject "A needle pulling thread." with someone who does it habitually.

For "Well," you can interject "A hole in the ground, about 50 ft. deep, you get water out of it."

'So, we've put proposals out for consultation blah blah'

That seems very childlike, in one sense. It's as if everything is a continuation of a story.

It really is a bizarre affectation. Heaven knows how it started.

I tend to leave the radio on most of the night and much of the content doesn't really register.
However, about a week ago a captain of industry was being interviewed and started every damned answer with 'so'.
I don't know how many times he'd used it before I started to pay attention.

I'm guilty.

So, I start a lot of posts with, 'So, '

I end a lot of posts by trailing off with so, so....

:o I do this.....